Steven Douenis

Of Counsel

With more than three decades of experience in general taxation, estate planning, estate administration, and estate litigation, Steven is recognized for his thoughtful counsel and innovative tax strategies that consistently achieve optimal results for his clients. Through his extensive experience and advanced legal training, Steven provides a balance of deep technical knowledge and practical insight across a range of complex tax matters.

Steven has counseled entrepreneurs, high net worth individuals, and families (both foreign and domestic), and their foundations with respect to corporate income taxation, partnership taxation, ERISA, FIRPTA, not-for- profit law and estate and gift taxation. In practice, Steven provides innovative solutions to obtain the optimum tax result for his clients. Every solution is tailored to his clients’ individual needs and includes the use of family limited partnerships and other discount strategies; wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts which utilize credit shelter planning, disclaimer planning, charitable lead and remainder trusts, generation-skipping planning and other proven estate planning methods. These methods include the use of Personal Residence Trusts, Insurance Trusts and Dynasty Trusts and other gifting techniques.

Steven’s practices extensively in estate administration and litigation, where he advises clients on every stage of the process—from efficient marshaling and distribution of assets to the preparation of complex Estate Tax and Estate Income Tax returns. He regularly represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in Surrogate’s Court, guiding them through estate and trust accounting proceedings, will construction actions, and post‑mortem tax planning with diligence and discretion.